GENEVA/DUBAI (Reuters)
The United States President, Donald Trump, said he was prepared to take
military action to stop Tehran from getting a nuclear bomb but left open
whether he would back the use of force to protect Gulf oil supplies that
Washington fears may be under threat by Iran.
Worries about a confrontation between
Iran and the United States have mounted since attacks last week on two oil
tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz shipping lane at the entrance to
the Gulf. Washington blamed long-time foe Iran for the incidents.
Tehran denies responsibility but the
attacks, and similar ones in May, have further soured relations that have
plummeted since Trump pulled the United States out of a landmark international
nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018.
Trump has restored and extended U.S.
economic sanctions on Iran. That has forced countries around the world to
boycott Iranian oil or face sanctions of their own.
But in an interview with Time
magazine, Trump, striking a different tone from some Republican lawmakers who
have urged a military approach to Iran, said last week’s tanker attacks in the
Gulf of Oman had only a “very minor” impact so far.
Asked if he would consider military
action to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons or to ensure the free
flow of oil through the Gulf, Trump said: “I would certainly go over nuclear
weapons and I would keep the other a question mark.”
The nuclear deal with Iran, which was
reached in 2015 during Barack Obama’s presidency, aimed to head off any pathway
to an Iranian nuclear bomb. Trump says the agreement failed to address Iran’s
missile program or punish it for waging proxy wars in Middle East countries.
Tehran has decried the toughening of
U.S. sanctions and urged other signatories to take action to save the nuclear
pact or see Iran turn its back on the deal.
The United States will maintain its
pressure campaign on Iran and continue to deter aggression in the region but
does not want the conflict with Tehran to escalate, Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo said on Tuesday.
“We have been engaged in many
messages, even this moment right here, communicating to Iran that we are there
to deter aggression,” Pompeo told reporters. “President Trump does not want war
and we will continue to communicate that message while doing the things that
are necessary to protect American interests in the region.”
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| Flight deck of the U.S aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) is seen as sailors swip the deck for foreign object and debris (FOD) walk-down on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in Arabian Sea, May 19, 2019 |
As tension with Iran rises,
uncertainty about leadership of the Pentagon grew on Tuesday with the news that
acting Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan had withdrawn from consideration to
head the U.S. military. USA Today has reported the FBI had been examining a
9-year-old domestic dispute involving Shanahan and his then-wife.
Shanahan on Monday had announced the
deployment of about 1,000 more troops to the Middle East for what he said were
defensive purposes, citing concerns about a threat from Iran.
The deployment is in addition to a
1,500-troop increase announced last month in response to tanker attacks in May.
Russia told the United States it
should drop what it called provocative plans to deploy more troops to the
Middle East and cease actions that looked like a conscious attempt to provoke
war with Iran, and urged restraint on all sides.
“What we see are unending and
sustained U.S. attempts to crank up political, psychological, economic and yes
military pressure on Iran in quite a provocative way,” Deputy Foreign Minister
Sergei Ryabkov was cited as saying by Russian media.
“They (these actions) cannot be
assessed as anything but a conscious course to provoke war,” he said.
China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, warned
the world should not open a “Pandora’s box” in the Middle East, as he denounced
U.S. pressure on Iran and urged Tehran to heed the deal.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said
Germany, another signatory, was doing all it could to ease tensions with Iran
but said Iran must abide by the 2015 deal.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said
in a speech that Iran did not seek war and dismissed U.S. efforts to isolate
Iran.
“Iran will not wage war against any
nation,” he said. “Despite all of the Americans’ efforts in the region and
their desire to cut off our ties with all of the world and their desire to keep
Iran secluded, they have been unsuccessful.”
But the commander of Iran’s elite
Revolutionary Guards Corps said on Tuesday that Iran’s ballistic missiles were
capable of hitting “carriers in the sea” with great precision.
“These missiles are domestically produced and
are difficult to intercept and hit with other missiles,” Brigadier General
Hossein Salami said in a televised speech. He said Iran’s ballistic missile
technology had changed the balance of power in the Middle East.
Heightened Iran-U.S. tensions have
stoked fears of increased violence in countries where Iran and its Gulf Arab
regional rivals are locked in a sometimes bloody struggle for influence.
Saudi air defences intercepted two
drones fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group, Saudi media said on Tuesday.
The group’s Al Masirah TV said the Houthis had sent drones to strike the
airport of the Saudi city of Abha.
Three rockets landed on a military
base hosting U.S. forces north of Baghdad late on Monday, an Iraqi military
statement said, without providing further details. There was no immediate claim
of responsibility for the attack.
U.S. officials said last month there
was an increased threat from Iran-backed militias against U.S. interests in
Iraq, and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad evacuated hundreds of staff.
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